Happy 10th Anniversary Harrow

 We were recently asked to make a Nafudakake for the instructor of JKS Harrow to celebrate ten years in the life of the dojo.

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Nafuda section shop page

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Certificate remodel for Nishinihon Karate

 We were recently asked to remodel a current Dan certificate for Nishinihon karate which involved making a few changes to layout, it was to be a mix of their existing certificate and our standard style A3 template. Being a small micro business "custom" is our speciality and we happy to work with our clients to try and produce exactly what they want. As usual the design is usually developed in a number of steps from client brief, through our initial rough draft, then a few "to and fro" amendments until we reach a final design.

The certificate uses the kanji for Shuryo-Shosho rather than just the Sho kanji as per their existing certificate. The client requested that the kana part of the text did not require a translation of the name of the recipient and date as this would be in the English text below. There is a space at the top of the 3rd column from the right to insert text of the level of Dan attained.

Nishinihon karate also asked that we incorporated their logo at the top, a custom Hanko, a phoenix border and a watermark along with their affiliations to federations at the base of the certificate.

The certificate leans a little more to a "Western" style than our normal certificate making it easier for the Association to complete details in English text making it a little easier for them and easier for the recipient to read as well.

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Certificates section shop page

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Swiss Special

 We were very pleased recently to be commissioned by Taekwondo Academie Geneve to produce a special plaque for them.

The plaque is a "Special" one off custom incorporating the Academie logo, the name of the dojang with the two mirrored TKD fighters in International and Swiss colours, the hangul for TKD and at the base the 5 Tenets.

The plaque is one of our standard sizes 780mm x 630mm and is a maple veneer on a mdf board with a balancer. We do not undertake Korean translation but rely on our client sending a text version of their requirements that are imported into our graphics package and a suitable font selected.

If you have a project in mind please drop us a E Mail to sotosabisu@btinternet.com with an outline of your project and we can develop and produce a quotation for you. Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Plaques and Name Board section shop page

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Kanban (Dojo Nameboard) to Somerset

 I just thought I would share a few photos of a Kanban for Somerset Karate

The client supplied an existing logo which we imported into our graphics package.

The first word is Somerset so Katakana is used, the next two kanji read Golden Dragon and then the last four are a little more familiar to most reading karate dojo. Internal photos do not always show the kanban to their best so I thought I would also take a picture outside the workshop in the sunshine.

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Plaques and Name Board section shop page

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Hanko for the GM

We seem to have had a run on "Specials" recently, so here is another project to share with you.

In Japan hierarchy is important, when the Japanese meet it is usually quite formal. Business cards may be exchanged and should be shown respect, looked at closely and even admired. To a Westerner it is a little strange to need to know if your are of a "higher" or "lower" standing than the person you are conversing with. The language may also change, one person may adopt the "polite" form while the other adopts a more "common" form in word selection.

In the workplace your (Immediate) Boss would be Joushi 上司
Your (Immediate) Subordinate would be Buka 部下
Your (Immediate) Senior is Senpai 先輩
and your (Immediate) Junior kohai 後輩
The last two are regularly used in Martial Arts, anyway I digress .....

We have on file a large selection of martial art ranks, titles etc, but I also have Japanese business titles. So when a client was asking for a design for a hanko that he could use in his position of General Manager we had a source to reference.

General Manager is Buchou 部長. We also used the kanji for Great Britain - Eikoku - 英国. There other names that can be used for the UK etc, but Eikoku is the term the organisation has used in the past .

We have never mixed Kanji and English text in a Hanko before and not sure how the concept arose but we really like it. The Client was offered a more traditional stamp with kanji only, but we really like this mix of East and West, hope you do too.

If you are interested in purchasing a hanko, please contact us with some initial details of your requirements to sotosabisu@btinternet.com

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Hanko and Inkan section shop page

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This weeks hanko "Specials"

This week we have done a few "Specials" that I thought I would share with you.
Although 90% of our business is producing what I would call "semi-traditional" stamps now and again we are asked if we can look at making something a little different.

The first was for a personal hanko, this would normally be first name for a westerner, but our client requested to have both names we produced some graphics for him to look at.

and he selected the Square stamp with both his names in a square border.

The second stamp was a request to make a self stamping version of the client's traditional hanko, but the customer wanted a larger stamp to fill more of the space in the grading book.

We again produced a few graphics and the client requested to add his full name as well as the Katakana for Harris.

The Third stamp was a request for a club logo in a hanko, the graphics the club had was very poor quality so we had a bit of work to do to to convert to a vector image that we could use, but we got there in the end.

The last was a bit of a "blue sky" request from the "Karate Doctor" he had a graphic below

and requested if we could turn this into a hanko. Well there were a few challenges, a stamp can only be a single colour of course. We had to start from scratch and started with a line drawing of a doctor, we added a dogi with a rising sun and added the kanji for karate Isha - Karate doctor.

Commercially custom stamps don't make any sense, they would be very expensive if we charged for all the time it takes to create them. We are happy for them to be a "lost leader" and enjoy providing a service for fellow martial artists.

If you are interested in purchasing a hanko, please contact us with some initial details of your requirements to sotosabisu@btinternet.com

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Hanko and Inkan section shop page

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Custom Chops to Colorado

It is always nice to make Hanko for returning customers.
Richard Bennett Shihan was an early customer of ours back in 2015 and required an additional five stamps for both Uechi Ryu Kokusai Kyolai and Matayoshi Kobudo Shinbukai.

We have subsidised worldwide P&P since the previous order and are still charging the same cost for stamps four years on, so they are actually cheaper now than before.

The Hanko are not to a traditional layout or size at 35mm * 35mm; we recommend this size for certificate stamps.

Our updated file for the client

We retain the graphic design for customers in our files so we can ensure repeat orders are in the same layout if required.

The five new stamps tested before shipment

Below is our short montage of how we built up the original Hanko for Uechi Ryu Kokusai Kyokai back in 2015.

 

If you are interested in purchasing a hanko, please contact us with some initial details of your requirements to sotosabisu@btinternet.com

Current costings can be found in the relevant shop page please click on the button below to view.

"Click" to go to - Hanko and Inkan section shop page

Top Tip
If you are accessing this site on your phone you may wish to view the "Web version" and access the menu in the side-bar to navigate. Just scroll down for the link.